Elbert Parr Tuttle,98, a former federal appeals chief...

DEATHS ELSEWHERE

June 25, 1996

Elbert Parr Tuttle,98, a former federal appeals chief judge who ordered Birmingham, Ala., educators in 1963 to readmit students expelled for taking part in civil rights protests, died Sunday of kidney failure in his hometown of Atlanta.

As chief judge of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans from 1960 to 1967, he presided over civil rights cases at a time when Southern legislators vowed to defy moves toward desegregation. The Tuttle-led court in June 1962 reversed a lower court's decision and ordered the University of Mississippi to accept its first black student, James Meredith.

In 1963, acting on his authority as chief judge, he ordered the Birmingham Board of Education to readmit 1,081 students who had been suspended or expelled for their roles in civil rights demonstrations.